


Hero Haikyuu!!

by djshyguy1



Category: Haikyuu!!, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead Adopts Eri, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Sports, Bakugou Katsuki Swears A Lot, Bakugou Katsuki and Toga Himiko are Siblings, Bakugou Katsuki is Bad at Feelings, Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia Manga Spoilers, Child Abuse, Childhood Friends, Comedy, Dabi and Todoroki Shouto Are Siblings, Dabi is Todoroki Touya, Drama, F/M, Family Drama, Fluff and Angst, Good Older Sibling Iida Tensei | Ingenium, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Mutual Pining, Shinsou Hitoshi is Tendo Satori's Brother, Spoilers for Haikyuu Manga & Anime, Teen Romance, Tournament Arcs, Training Camp, Volleyball
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:21:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27815245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/djshyguy1/pseuds/djshyguy1
Summary: After a horrible last season, Mirio Togata, Tamaki Amajiki, and Nejire Hadou expect no one to join Yuuei High School's Boy's Volleyball Club, but to their surprise, a whole new batch of first-year players arrive at their doorstep. Will they be able to turn these kids into a Nationals ready team?Izuku Midoriya has always dreamed of playing volleyball internationally like his father while becoming the best player in the world. The problem is, his "good friend" Katsuki Bakugo, won't stop getting on his case. Now, at a new high school with new teammates, Midoriya hopes he can finally put his libero skills to good use...Until he finds out Bakugo is still his teammate?!
Relationships: Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead/Fukukado Emi | Ms. Joke, Amajiki Tamaki/Hadou Nejire, Ashido Mina/Shouji Mezou, Awase Yousetsu/Kodai Yui, Awase Yousetsu/Yaoyorozu Momo, Hagakure Tooru/Ojiro Mashirao, Haiba Lev/Kuroo Tetsurou, Haiba Lev/Yamamoto Akane, Hatsume Mei/Iida Tenya, Hinata Shouyou & Midoriya Izuku, Hinata Shouyou/Yachi Hitoka, Kan Sekijirou | Vlad King/Kayama Nemuri | Midnight, Kendou Itsuka/Tokoyami Fumikage, Midoriya Izuku/Uraraka Ochako, Nishiya Shinji | Kamui Woods/Takeyama Yuu | Mount Lady, Shinsou Hitoshi/Yanagi Reiko, Todoroki Shouto/Yaoyorozu Momo
Comments: 5
Kudos: 46





	1. Beginnings and Endings

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [My Volleyball Academia: The Crows take on Yuuei!](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18513835) by [kazmord](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kazmord/pseuds/kazmord). 

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At a middle school volleyball tournament, Aldera Junior High's Boy's Volleyball Club make it to the finals. Though, they are facing tough opponents and having trouble in the third set due to the hot-blooded personality of their ace, Katsuki Bakugo. Their libero Izuku Midoriya will have to find a way to keep up or face the consequences.
> 
> Later after the tournament, Midoriya has gotten into his dream school Yuuei Highschool, and can't wait to play volleyball with their legendary players! But to his astonishment, Bakugo also goes to Yuuei?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, starting another fic without updating the other ones huh?
> 
> Well, while I'm actually making headway on both The Journey and Unwanted Romance, (even though it's really slow on UR), I had inspiration from this fic I read and saw that no one was writing a fic like it so I was like fuck it.
> 
> I'll write a Haikyuu x MHA fic myself. 
> 
> This one will be about if U.A. was just regular highschool in the Haikyuu universe, and if the majority of the first years were volleyball players! I have a lot of fun ideas for this story as well, and I want to see how much I can improve writing volleyball scenes by the end of this thing.
> 
> For this story in particular though, I'm looking for a beta-reader! So if you're interested, please message me on Discord at DJ Shy Guy 1#2840.
> 
> Happy reading!

Stepping onto a tournament court, either gives you two feelings in Izuku Midoriya’s mind.

Excitement

or Fear.

And Midoriya right now was definitely feeling the latter.

“Hnng!” Midoriya grunted as he saved another ball flying way out of bounds. He fell on his knees again, but he had to get up.

We’re, he thought as he mentally kicked himself to stand on his feet, probably going to set to Bakugo, again.

It was a stupid strategy, but it was the only one they had to beat this powerhouse of a team. It was the finals, third set with their opponents beating them in the first two. They had already exhausted all their good spikers, and Coach knew that. For some reason though, Bakugo still had gas left in the tank.

Problem is, the team will figure out if you keep setting to the same player each time! Midoriya wanted to say something, anything, like trick them by fake setting to Bakugo and then set to another wing spiker! But, it’s not like any of his teammates respected him. They didn’t really respect Bakugo either, for that matter, his explosive spikes and attitude scared them into submission. And to Bakugo, the rest of his team were all extras. Well, you know, except for…

“DEKU, If you wanna keep being a shitty libero, then, RECIEVE. THE DAMN. BALL!” 

Bakugo’s shout could be all across the court as Midoriya snapped out of his head and jumped to the side for a dig.

“Grrgh!” He slid on his side across the floor as the ball was kept in the air again. Another kid received it.

“I got it!” The setter got into position to-

“EXTTTRRRRAAA! SET TO MEEEEE!”

“Tch”, their setter with a tired expression on his face, set the ball to Bakugo, as he hit another straight like it was the first point of the first set. However, the opposing team had caught on, their libero waiting right there for him.

“Todoroki!”, the libero shouted after receiving. The strange kid with the red and white hair sought to set for a,

Midoriya cringed, as their middle blockers were tricked into jumping early for a fake spike, a back-row attack!?

Their other wing spiker slammed it down the middle as Midoriya rushed in to receive it, though the force of the ball sent his whole body backward a bit. He couldn’t count how many balls he had received today, though he didn’t know if the rest of the team were too lazy to receive them, or if they were scared of the opposing team's insane spiking power.

“ONE MORE!!!” Bakugo screamed into everyone’s eardrums as the setter set to him again in…

The same position at the net as last time?! 

Kacchan, Midoriya thought desperately, there’s no way. No matter how much power you have…

Midoriya looked at his irritated face as he jumped for the spike on the left side.

There’s no way you can make that shot!

Bakugo slammed it down with all his might, but of course, there was a single blocker waiting for him. A tall, dark blue-haired kid with glasses, had his arms completely block Bakugo’s straight, as the ball fell to the left of him, almost in slow motion.

No! Midoriya thought, as he got out of his thoughts again to race toward the ball. If I don’t save this one, we’ll lose… Kacchan will… 

He stretched out his fist as far as he could.

Come, ON!

But it was too late, as the ball bounced on the floor the moment Midoriya’s fist got close to it. The Aldera Junior High boys stared at the ref for the call, even though they already knew…

They lost.

____________________________________________________________________________

As they were packing their stuff off the bench, Midoriya couldn’t describe the humiliation he felt. Even people from the other team were staring at him, the kid with the half and half hair and the tall glasses kid to be exact. He looked back at them for a second as they walked out of the court before one of his teammates called to him. 

“Deku!”

He turned around to give them attention, dreading what they would say next.

“Why didn’t you save that ball earlier? You know Bakugo is gonna be in a bad mood for the rest of the ride home because of you!”

“C’mon man, lay off him, man. You know we weren’t gonna win that game anyway.”

They began walking in front of him, leaving him behind in the hallway, “Whatever, a person who talks about becoming the best libero all the time, 

should’ve dug that ball.”

As they left, Deku felt heavy, he couldn’t say anything back. Why didn’t you guys try more, actually strategize?! He had so many things he wanted to say, but he never said them. He always kept them to himself.

Is that what a good volleyball player does? He thought, always say nothing to his teammates and lose when it counts.

Would you know Dad?

He sighed as he finally started to walk out of the hallway, staring at his hand the whole time. The hand that failed.

When he reached the steps outside, he saw Bakugo waiting for him. His back was turned to him with his bag on, and everyone else was probably on the bus by now.

If he didn’t know what to say to his teammates back there, he certainly didn’t know what to say here. If anything he was terrified of what Bakugo was going to say to him, something that could possibly haunt him for a long time. He held his breath, waiting for the typical rude remark, the horrid insult...

“If you think while playing a shitty position like libero, you can become the best in the world, your fucking delusional.”

Yup, there it is.

What was he supposed to say? He just lost them the game, so anything he said now would make him look worse than before. He should keep his mouth shut and just walk past him, get onto the bus and,

and...

“I, I….”

Midoriya choked up, he felt awful. Tears began to trickle from his eyes as Bakugo turned his head sideways to look at him. They were flowing now, falling onto the ground below him, before he finally looked straight at Bakugo’s face, remembering the words his father told him. 

Even as libero,

“I can become the best volleyball player around!”

Bakugo was still glancing at him halfway as he cried his eyes out, gasping for air as he spoke.

“I, I’ll get a better team! A-and when I go to high school, I’ll prove myself! I-I will go to nationals, and become the best volleyball player in the world!”

The blonde boy looked at him for a moment, before sneering at him, “Good luck with that.” With that, he walked off to the bus alone. Midoriya wiped his face with his hands, before wiping the rest with his shirt and jumping off the flight stairs below him. It was going to be a long ride home, and even though their season was probably close to over, he still had time.

He had to improve before high school, because when he finally got to his dream school, no doubt about it, no matter what Bakugo or anyone said,

he would become the best libero anyone had ever seen! 

____________________________________________________________________________

A full year had passed, a full year of training and struggle. Midoriya grappled to connect with most of his team after that incident, but it wouldn’t keep him down. As he walked through the city streets from his apartment, he felt pure excitement in his veins.

He was going to Yuuei Highschool!

The legendary school not only was the home of the awesome retired player turned coach All Might, (more commonly known as Toshinori Yagi), a man who could spike a ball more powerful than anyone in Japan, it also was where Gran Torino used to coach, a man so smart he took Yuuei to nationals! 

Midoriya knew if he was going to succeed at any school, it was Yuuei! Plenty of players were going there for All Might, and they had no knowings of his past or Bakugo. It was like a dream come true. He passed the entrance exam with flying colors, all he had to do now was show the current volleyball team his stuff! He smiled, as he began to run instead of walk to his new school, faster than he ever did before.

He had watched many videos on how to be a better libero, and, more importantly, working on his volleyball strategy! This year, Midoriya thought as he ran toward Yuuei Highschool, his team would listen to him any time he had something to say. Not only he would help his team with receives and digs, but he could also give them the key to win! He became excited just thinking about it.

His arms were more developed, and his legs were strengthened, if anything was going to stop him now, it would certainly not be the ball anymore-

Midoriya’s rapid thoughts came to a screeching halt just outside the school gate. As he realized he wasn’t going forward, but going down,

ward?

He had tripped on his own foot. 

Well, that’s it, he thought, I’m a failure. All this training and practice and I still can’t run with my own two feet right. 

As he braced his face for impact, he felt a pull on his backpack. “Huh?!” 

He was surprised that he didn’t have a face pancake right about now, who had helped him up?

“Sorry for grabbing you so suddenly! But it would be really bad if you fell right?”

It...

It was a girl’s voice?!

The girl helped pull him back up, and as he stood on his feet, he finally got a good look at her. 

This girl, is REALLY CUTE!

“Are you ok?” she asked.

Midoriya continued to look perplexed at the smiling girl before he stammered out, “Ah… Uh…!” But he managed to shake his head up and down many times to signal he was. 

She continued to speak in a cheery tone, “Aren’t you nervous? It’s our first real day of highschool! I’m already nervous about the entrance ceremony!” 

Midoriya didn’t know what to say, he had never talked to a girl before! He tried to come up with anything, or at least ask for her name! But all he did was to continue stuttering and stammering.

“Uh… Um… Mm, hm…!?”

The girl stared at him for a second, before smiling again, and… Giggling?!

“Let’s both do our best out there! See ya!” She waved him off, as she continued to walk past the school gate. As she waved goodbye and Midoriya waved back, his face still in awe, he noticed something.

I-I talked to a girl!

He began to gawk to himself, unaware of the passerby's staring at him and his weird noises. This, this has to be a sign! He thought, a sign of a good and bright future! One of talking to girls, passing grades, and good volleyball teams!

His smile widened as he ran through the gates, and ahead on through the entrance. After a ho-hum entrance ceremony, he changed his shoes and jogged to his class, (Class 1-A, was it?), and he felt as though this was his stepping stone. 

Yes, he began to think happily, a stepping stone, for a good and bright, wonderful-!

“Don’t put your feet on the desk!”

“Huh?”

“Don’t you think that’s rude to the Yuuei upperclassmen and the people who made the desk?”

“I don’t! What junior high did you go to, you side character?!”

“I attended Somei Private Academy. My name is Tenya Iida.”

“Somei?! Then that means, you’re the school that beat us in that tournament a year ago! You’re the kid that blocked me! Trying to pick a fight with me?!”

“A fight? On the first day?! How terrible, how can you be a respectful highschool student with that kind of attitude!?”

“Bakugo?!”

Both Bakugo and the Iida turned to look at Midoriya, and soon Bakugo bubbled up with rage at the sight of the green-haired boy.

“Deku?! What the hell are you doing here?!”

“Th-that’s what I-I’m trying to say, what-”

“Good morning!” Iida interrupted him as he walked toward the entrance of the classroom, “I am from Somei Private Academy. My name is-”

Midoriya put his hands in front of his face, “I heard!”

Iida stopped in surprise as Midoriya relaxed, sighing while putting his hands down, “I’m Izuku Midoriya. Nice to meet you, Iida-kun.”

“Midoriya-san, I remember you from the tournament. I have never seen a libero with such determination. I want to say it to you personally, but you played great out there.”

T-thank you? Midoriya thought as he sweated nervously, he wasn’t the type to be complimented.

“Oh, that curly hair! You’re the plain-looking one!”

Midoriya turned around to see, the cute girl from earlier?! It’s the nice person! His brain was going into overdrive. W-what is going on? S-she looks really cute in a uniform…

The girl continued to talk as Midoriya internally monologued, “The kid I stopped from falling on his face earlier!” She giggled again.

Midoriya began to blush and cover his face, covering it up with his hands. “Y-y-y-you don’t need t-t-t-to announce that t-t-t-to the whole c-c-class-s-s…!”

“So annoying so early in the morning.”

“Ah!” All three gasped as a man with short black hair appeared behind them at the entrance.

“It took you 4 seconds before you were quiet,” He walked past the three to his desk, but not before glancing at Midoriya and the nice girl, “time is limited. You kids are not rational enough.”

The three of them said nothing and immediately walked to their assigned seats. The man walked to the middle of the front of the classroom but kept the same, dry, emotionless tone as earlier.

“I’m your homeroom teacher, Shota Aizawa. Nice to meet you.”

He held up a stack of papers to his chest with both hands.

“It’s kind of sudden, but I want you all to take this.”

The kids looked surprised before a kid with short, spiky yellow hair shouted in terror. “A pop quiz?!”

“You lot are in high school now, so you must be prepared for anything that comes at you. It covers a wide range of subjects, so it should be a good review for all your past classes. Can someone pass these out?”

A girl with a black ponytail raised her hand and Aizawa nodded as she came up to grab the quiz sheets. As she began to pass them out, Midoriya looked at Bakugo, who sat at the right of him. Bakugo stared right back, and the tension was visible in their glares for all to see. 

Why, Midoriya thought, why did you come to this school?!

And please, please don’t be on the volleyball team...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the next chapter, we'll meet the elusive third years! And some of the other first-year recruits as Midoriya and Bakugo come to terms with their situation!
> 
> If you have any concerns, suggestions, or helpful tips make sure to comment!


	2. Yuuei High School's Boy's Volleyball Club

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Immediately after class, Midoriya runs toward the gym to meet the volleyball team. But his worst fears come to life as Bakugo is there as well! But before they can truly process that they're on the same team again, third years, Amajiki, Hadou, and Togata arrive at the gym, surprised to have people join the club at all!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2! This is really fun to write, I can't wait to make more.

“Deku.”

Midoriya looked up from his bag to see Bakugo’s murderous glare. He jumped back in fear.

“Don’t catch up.” Bakugo scoffed, before heading out of the classroom on his own. It was the end of class and Midoriya was beginning to fear what Bakugo meant by that.

No, what does he mean? Is it what I think he means?! Midoriya’s thoughts were in a constant state of terror as he began to pack his bag more frantically than before.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no-!

“H-hello?”

“Eh?!” Midoriya looked up from his frantic packing to see the same girl from before. 

“A-are you alright?” The girl looked concerned about Midoriya’s current state.

He shook his head, “Y-yes! Sorry! I just have a lot of things on my mind right now…”

The girl smiled again, “Oh, good! My name is Ochako Uraraka, and you’re Deku Midoriya, right?”

“Deku?!”

“Huh?” Uraraka pondered for a moment, “But that boy who just left the class just called you that-?” 

Midoriya began to twiddle his fingers in embarrassment, “Uh, it’s kinda hard to explain. But my real name is Izuku, but D-Deku is what Kacchan uses to make fun of me…” He had never really told anyone why Bakugo called him that, especially a cute girl like Uraraka.

“Oh, is that right? I’m sorry!”

But she looked up to think and then grinned at him with a revelation, “But you know, Deku kinda sounds like the Japanese word for ‘You can do it!’”

You…

Can do it, huh?

She pumped up her arm in exhilaration, “I think I like it.”

She’s so pretty when she smiles…

“D-Deku…”

“Eh?”

“Y-you, you can call me Deku!!”

The girl clapped her hands together and laughed, “Ah nice! Deku-kun!”

Midoriya began to blush, like blush madly. He was pretty sure she could see it too, and as he hid his face from the smiling beauty, he noticed,

“Ah! Club!” He stuffed the rest of the things in his backpack frantically as he speed-talked to Uraraka.

“I was wondering if you wanted to the station togethe-”

“AhimsupersorrybutIhavetogosomewherelikerightnowsssuperquickly!!!”

“Oh? Where are you going?” Midoriya began to jog in place with his knees going up high to his stomach as he prepared to run.

“Volleyball club! I’m so sorry! Do you want to do it together tomorrow?!” 

“Um, sure?”

Midoriya ripped a piece a paper from one of his notebooks and wrote down his Line ID, before shouting goodbye and running out of the classroom at the speed of light.

As Ochako looked at the paper Midoriya handed her, she thought. Huh…

A timid kid, like him... Plays volleyball?

____________________________________________________________________________

Tamaki Amajiki and Mirio Togata walked through the halls down to the first floor, making their way toward the gym. 

“*sigh*, I forgot we had to go back to that sad state of the gym this year.” Amajiki sulked as he slouched.

“Tamaki, don’t think like that! This is a new year and a new start! Meaning we get to redeem ourselves and show this prefecture the true strength of Yuuei!” Togata shot his arm into the sky with confidence as he spoke, sounding like a true, inspiring leader.

“Mirio-kun, I think you forgot this but… We’re the only ones on the team.” Amajiki stated matter of factly, but Togata shook his head.

“You’re always down in the dumps about the team. Relax, Hadou-san hasn’t even given us the applications yet!” He patted Amajiki on the back excitedly, and though Amajiki sighed again, he stood up straight and looked less grim.

As if she had been summoned by words, Amajiki felt something hit his back incredibly fast, “Oof!” 

“S-sorry, Amajiki-kun!” Hadou stepped back a bit as the two boys turned around to see her.

Amajiki blushed immediately, “H-H-Hadou-san?!” He then looked away to the side so she couldn’t see his blushing pink face.

Togata, however, had his whole face light up.

“Hadou! Perfect timing, we were just talking about you! Do you get the club applications yet?” He hit his fist to his palm.

Hadou blushed, looking embarrassed. As she held some papers close to her chest, she also looked to the side, “W-w-well, I do. U-um…”

Both Amajiki and Togata looked at her for a second, with confused looks on their faces. 

“U-um, Hadou-san?” Amajiki asked.

“Yeah, you alright?” Togata put a hand on his hip. Hadou almost never looked like this.

Finally, after looking around like she was searching for some reason to say something, she sighed and bowed as she held out the application forms. Togata and Amajiki looked at each other before Togata shrugged and took the forms. 

The stack felt, strangely, thick, in his hands. He looked even more confused than before in Amajiki’s eyes as Togata began to count each form, putting one sheet behind the other. As he counted more, he did it more frantically.

“Eight, nine, ten, and, eleven!?” Finally, Amajiki asked, looking at Togata more seriously.

“What's going on?”

Togata turned to him, completely astounded, before saying it aloud. 

He was shaking a little as he said it, “E-e-e-e-leven! Eleven applicants!!!”

Amajiki’s eyes nearly popped out of his socket, and his jaw instantly dropped. He looked over at Hadou for confirmation this wasn’t just a ruse, and she shook her head up and down furiously.

The three huddled around the papers Togata held out.

“T-this can’t be happening. It’s too good to be true, they have to just be staying for one day and that’s it. They’ll probably all leave after the first week-”

“Tamaki! Remember what Sasaki-sensei said!”

Amajiki looked over to Togata solemnly, “If nothing else, believe in Yuuei’s, Yagi's, and Torino's legacy!” 

Togata began to shake the papers happily, looking at his two companions, “Don’t you see what this means, this is just enough players we need to have a team again! We can start practicing and competing as soon as possible!”

He did a heroic pose, standing up straight with both hands on his hips this time, looking up to the ceiling like a bright shining light was over him. Both Amajiki and Hadou stared at him in awe. Amajiki smiled, even with how impossible it seemed, the volleyball club was somehow saved by the skin of its teeth by a new year bringing in new prospects. I guess we’ll be fine after all, he chuckled a bit at the insaneness of it all. Hadou looked at both of them, before replying sheepishly.

“Sorry if I burst your guy’s bubble with this a bit, but it would be weird to not tell you…”

The two boys immediately looked at her wide-eyed before she finally revealed, blushing a bit with a smile, “All the applicants, a-are first y-years.”

Silence, from both of them. Then...

“What?! Huh, there’s no way!” Amajiki was stunned and immediately groaned. Nevermind, he thought, it wasn’t good at all.

Though Togata on the other hand, his face looked actually pretty confident, his voice full of passion as he spoke, “Hmph, I see…

A challenge.” He smirked.

____________________________________________________________________________

Midoriya raced through the halls as various students asked about clubs and memberships around him. He finally made it to high school, after all this time. After a bad team with teammates that resented him, after getting used to being a libero, after so much.

I swore that I would become a better player, the best in the world, he felt.

So I made my mind and proceeded to the Yuuei High School's Boy’s Volleyball Club.

His legs rushed him to the second gym faster, (the one that was assigned to the volleyball clubs), praying that his reality would change if thought hard enough about a certain outcome.

He made his way outside and toward the gym building. The door was, already open?! Oh no, he thought, no, no, no, no!

He jumped through the doorway, landing on the floors of the clean, polished gymnasium, only to see what he feared most. 

It was Katsuki Bakugo, getting ready to do a jump serve. He had already thrown up the ball, and now he was soaring through the air, preparing to hit the ball with absolute precison and power.

However…

“KAAACHAAAAAAANNN?!”

Bakugo stopped in the middle of his serve, falling straight down on his feet, stumbling a bit. As the ball he was about to hit rolled in front of him after the floor, he slowly looked at Midoriya with his face turning from one of surprise into one of disgust. 

Midoriya was wide-eyed, mouth open in shock as he began to stutter something, anything out.

“Why, why are you here?!”

“Deku, how dare you interrupt me,” Bakugo turned to walk towards him with a chilling expression, putting his face right up in his, “when I’m about to do an AWESOME SERVE! DUMBASS!!”

Midoriya backed up, waving his hands in front of his face as a shield, “I-I-I, I just don’t understand! Why, why are you at Yuuei?”

“Huh, are you trying to tell me to get lost on the first day, nerd? Do you really want me to beat you to a pulp that bad?!”

“N-no, it’s just, it’s just, well, I…”

“Spit it out, moron!” Bakugo shouted loud and hard in his direction.

“Y-you were the best player on our team, clearly really ahead of the rest of us. Why aren’t you going to one of the top teams in the prefecture? There are way more successful schools to choose from!”

Bakugo looked at him silently, for once not screaming some obscene insult at his face. He looked at the floor.

“I applied to the best damn team this prefecture had to offer…” He got quiet. Midoriya was looking at him, puzzled.

Bakugo then held his fist out in front of him and clenched it hard, as if to kill something in his hand, “But,” He looked straight at Midoriya, with a pissed-off face.

“THOSE SHIT-HEADS DIDN'T LET ME IN!” he yelled at the top of his lungs. Midoriya once again put hands in front of his face to shield from spit flying in his direction.

Midoriya, even though he was alarmed by his ridiculous scream, was more puzzled than before. Why didn’t they let him in? Bakugo had insane stamina and strong arms, and could even win against 3 blockers alone! How could a team not want someone like that in their offensive position? He thought as he turned around, going into his trademark thinking pose with a hand on his chin and his arm being held up by the other one.

I guess a better question would be, Midoriya thought as Bakugo went to go pick up his ball, why couldn’t they let him in? He pouted to himself, not realizing Bakugo was staring right at him while doing so.

“You look awfully sad over there Deku," Bakugo held the ball between both his hands at the center of his chest. "don’t tell me…” He glanced at Midoriya with a killing glare.

“You were hoping to run to this school, just to escape from me?” He began to squeeze it with insane power.

Midoriya began to stutter and stammer more, and before he could think of an excuse to escape the gym… 

He heard, voices?

“Looking at the roster some more, even though they’re all first years, most of them already have very promising skill and talents!”

“Shouldn’t that make you scared Mirio? One of those kids could even be good enough to take your spot on the team.”

“Alway’s saying things like that, chicken-hearted Amajiki-kun. Though it would be cool to see a wing spiker that’s better than Mirio.”

“I’m pretty there sure there are players like that out there already. Though I’m not saying I wouldn’t be a threat to them!”

S-some, some other players!! Midoriya thought. He had to make a good first impression!

“U-um, hello!” Midoriya bowed awkwardly as Bakugo walked back up next to him to observe what he was bowing to. Three students stood at the entrance of the doorway. A tall, strong-looking, blonde-haired boy, a girl with long periwinkle hair that went down to her knees, and a shy-looking boy with indigo hair. The three were all wearing a dark blue tracksuit, and pants to match. 

“Hey! Hey! Are you guys some of the new first-year members? Are you?” The girl asked, enthusiastically, but also at the speed of a sprinting cheetah.

How can a girl talk so damn fast? Thought Bakugo, annoyed.

“Y-yes! My name is-” Midoriya started, but before he could even say his name, the girl jumped to the next question.

“You know, your hair kinda reminds me of a pomeranian, but your face is scary. You’re like a big, scary pomeranian puppy! Do you like puppies?” She jumped in front of Bakugo, twiddling his hair in between her fingers.

“Huh?! Look, step off la-!”

She jumped in front of Midoriya in a flash and looked closely at his face. Midoriya couldn’t handle the pressure and began to blush immediately, looking anywhere that wasn’t her eyes.

“Hey!” Bakugo shouted, “I wasn’t don-!”

“Your face is cute, and you have green hair. So you’re like a little baby piece of broccoli! Is that your favorite vegetable? Is eating that how you got your hair green?”

“W-w-w-whaaaa?!” Midoriya looked back at her now, but he was dumbfounded by her question. 

She was probably going to say something else, but the blonde-haired boy held a fist in front of his mouth. He faked coughed to get her attention.

“EHEM! Hadou-san?” The girl looked back at the blonde boy, before realizing she was overstepping her boundaries a bit.

“O-oh, sorry, Togata-san.” She rubbed the back of her head as she bowed to both of them as an apology. She then regrouped with the other two boys at the entrance, standing at the left of the two.

Midoriya felt a bit pressured by looking at the three of them, they all looked so big. They had to third years. Was the girl the manager? And those two boys…

What type of volleyball players were they? He pondered.

“Now for a proper introduction… HELLO!”, The blonde boy stood in a heroic pose and, shouted at them, but in a way more pleasant way than Bakugo’s incessant angry shouting.

“You’ve already met a bit earlier, but this is Nejire Hadou! She is your team manager!” Hadou waved to the two of them.

“And I am MIRIO TOGATA! I will be your team captain starting this semester!” Togata then looked over at the shy boy to the right of him.

“THIS HERE IS YOUR VICE CAPTAIN! Tamaki Amajiki, please introduce yourself!”

The shy boy who had been previously eyeing the ground finally looked up and his gaze was straight up eerie. It shocked Midoriya, and so much as little startled Bakugo. After what seemed like forever, Amajiki squinted.

“I-It’s no good, Mirio, Hadou…” He was violently shaking.

“No matter how hard I try to think of them as potatoes, everything except their heads just keeps its human form… And besides their heads, I can only see them as humans! W-w-w-hat should I do, the words! They won’t come out!” 

Both Midoriya and Bakugo looked at him confused as Amajiki looked like he was about to collapse.

“My mind’s completely blank, it’s, it’s, so painful…!”

He turned around and slammed his head into the gymnasium wall next to the entrance as hard as could, “I WANNA GO HOME!”

Hadou, concerned, walked over to Amajiki and began to rub his back, “C’mon Amajiki! This is no place to act chicken-hearted! You have to look cool in front of the first years! Hey, listen...”

As Hadou continued, looking more and more concerned as she tried to reach him, Togata kept on from earlier. He sighed.

“I should’ve prepped him more beforehand. A-anyways, with that out that way…”

He leaned forward with a hand on his ear, “THE JOURNEY AHEAD-?!”

Again both first years were just as confused as to when Hadou approached them, not knowing what to say.

“THAT’S WHERE YOU SAY: ‘WILL BE FULL OF DIFFICULTIES! ALRIGHT! YOU BOTH UTTERLY FAIL AT GETTING THE POINT OF THE CONVERSATION!”

For once in their lives, both Midoriya and Bakugo looked at each other while thinking the same thing.

Are these guys really the third years, that can lead us all the way to nationals?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time, will Midoriya and Bakugo be able to adjust to being teammates again? And, how will they get along with their new teammates?


	3. A Day To Bear and Grin Through

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Midoriya and Bakugo get into trouble, and even though they're stuck, they find a solution. And meet some teammates that could help, or hinder them?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, this took so long, I kinda buried into Attack On Titan with the new season and manga chapter coming out. To compensate, this chapter is crazy long!
> 
> Still looking for a beta reader! So if you're interested, please message me on Discord at DJ Shy Guy 1#2840. And enjoy the read!

“Well, I at least could tell from your previous faces that you had no clue what’s going on...”

“Seriously though Kacchan, why here, at Yuuei?! Even if the top school in the prefecture didn’t choose you, there are schools higher ranked than here that you could’ve chosen!”

“I can choose any damn school I please! I didn’t know you cared so much about the roster here, nerd.”

“Well, when the roster has someone who always bullies me…” Midoriya mumbled, irritated.

“Huh? What was that, nerd?!”

“W-why would I want to play with someone who always picks on me?!”

Bakugo closed the distance between them, “I only pick on you because you pick a shitty position, and you play like a shitty player.” He muttered close to his face, staring right at him as if to personally threaten him.

“I-I’m, I’m not, a bad player! I did just as much practice as you did last year after the tournament, I’ve gotten better as a libero!”

Togata felt like he was being tossed to the side a bit, “U-um… The explanation of this club and its history have been left to third years, which you’ve barely met. Doesn’t make much sense right?”

“If you’re playing a shitty position like libero,” He glared at him, his eyes looking dead serious. “you’re never going to become a better player.” He chillingly stated.

“Y-you two are both promising, prospect players who could heavily benefit this school’s boy’s volleyball program. I mean, one of you is a libero and another is one of the most promising wing spikers in the country, correct…?”

“But if you insist so much, that you’ve improved,” Bakugo put the ball he was holding into one of his hands as he walked over to the first of the two nets in front of them, and then he held it out on the palm of one’s of hands, menacingly, “Then you might as well show me how much you fucking have? Am I wrong?!”

Midoriya was scared for a moment, but he put his game face on. The whole point of coming here was to show that he had gotten better. “No. You’re not, and I will show you right now!”

“HEY! Hold on? Are you guys listening to me?” Togata looked lost as Midoriya took off his jacket and tie to run over to the opposite side of the court of Bakugo. He unbuttoned his first two buttons and rolled up his sleeves. 

Togata took a small breath of defeat, only to look over at Hadou still rubbing Amajiki’s back, trying to comfort him. Only now he was sitting forward, back against the wall, knees upheld by his arms and his face in his knees.

Suddenly though, the door slid open, finally greeting a new, welcome face, “Hello! Is this the correct building for the Yuuei High School's Boy's Volleyball Club?”

Togata lit up as he saw a new friendly face, “Ah! Yes, and who might you be?”

Both Amajiki and Hadou examined the student as well.

“My name is Tenya Iida, you may call me Iida! It is a pleasure to meet you! Could you quite be the captain of the team?” He walked up to Togata, holding his hand out for a handshake.

Togata took it up with stride, “Yes! You are quite right I am, you must be the middle blocker from the Iida family everyone has been talking about, glad to see you joined our school!” 

Iida replied with thanks before eyeing both Hadou and Amajiki behind him. “So, you must be the team manager, may I shake your hand?” 

Hadou got up with a surprised look on her face and nodded, “Y-yes! I’m Nejire Hadou, y-you’re quite polite.”

Togata snickered to himself, it’s still funny to Hadou all embarrassed and flustered after being around Tamaki, he thought. 

Amajiki got up himself and put his hand on the back of his neck, reaching out the other one for a shake as well, “My name is Tamaki Amajiki and I’m the vice-captain. Don’t expect much, and I hope we get along.”

While Iida was confused by what he meant by, don’t expect much, he still shook his hand regardless, “Of course, as I do as well. Nice to meet you!”

Both Hadou and Togata had smiles as big as the sun as they observed Amajiki, “AMAJIKI!!! Amazing job communicating!” Togata exclaimed.

“Hope you’re ready to see how much I’ve progressed over time, Deku.” Bakugo got into the serve position on the other end of the court.

“Of course! Same with me!” Midoriya got into position, arms and legs shoulder-width apart, palms open wide, ready to receive!

As Bakugo tossed up the ball, Iida looked behind him to see both boys from his homeroom class. 

“Ah! Midoriya-san and Bakugo-san! You two are on the volleyball team as well? That is quite a surprise. Though, nice to see you here!”

Midoriya looked over for a minute, and his face changed from serious to happy in an instant, finally seeing someone on his team that wouldn’t want to terrorize him every waking moment.

“Iida-san! What a pleasant surprise! It’s nice to see you her-”

Before he could say anymore, Bakugo leaped after running a bit, jumping a good height before putting all of his pent rage into one swing. His arm flew to the ball location, and his hand exploded immediately onto the ball with a,

BOOM!

It could be felt across the whole gym as Bakugo’s serve, almost instantaneously, slammed down next to Midoriya in a matter of seconds, not even giving him time to react. Midoriya robotically turned his head over to look at where the ball hit before flying off the floor behind him and then at Bakugo, with a petrified look on his face. Realizing what he’d just witnessed.

Amajiki looked up at Bakugo’s pulsating body as it fell back down to the ground, and murmured, “So that’s Bakugo Katsuki, the kid whos hits feel as if they explode onto the ball…”

“Wow,” Hadou remarked, “H-he’s, really good.” 

Bakugo looked at Midoriya straight in the face, with his usual mean smirk.

“How is that any different than last year, shitface?” Midoriya cringed, and then looked more determined than ever.

“One more.” He said in the most serious tone Bakugo ever heard him use. Midoriya ran to grab the ball that flew off and throw it back to Bakugo.

“Are they supposed to be doing this?” Iida looked back at Togata. He sighed and shook his head.

“No, but they won’t even listen to anything I say, I think they’re too deep in their own min-”

“THAT IS NO GOOD!” Iida exclaimed, holding up his arm in a karate chop like gesture. Little did Togata know, that he would have to get used to this little hand gesture quirk of Iida's pretty fast.

“Midoriya and Bakugo! I demand you stop this instant and listen to our captain!” Iida hollered at the two boys. 

They both ignored him as Bakugo tossed up the ball again.

He jumped high, in perfect form, and suddenly Midoriya’s determination cracked a little. 

But a good libero, he thought resolved, is ready to face any challenge for their team…

Head, ON!

“BRING IT!!!”

“HIIIYAHHHH!!!”, Bakugo slammed his whole arm down, slapping the ball as if it was the last thing he was ever going to hit.

Midoriya instantly side stepped fast to the ball’s location, stretching both his arms to receive far out to the right when he couldn’t make it in time.

The ball hit his arms like a train, and he could the pain swell up in his triceps. It was unbearable, and even though in real life this was happening in a millisecond, he could swear it was taking forever to receive it back. The ball pushed on his arms as hard as it could and he pushed back with all his might. This, had, to be, more, powerful, than, LAST TIME! Midoriya thought as he felt his arms giving out.

C-C’MON! DON’T, GIVE, IN!!

C-C-COME, ON!!!

Finally, his arms faltered, and his body launched backward as the ball propelled to the right of him.

Bakugo was stunned. He saw it, for a split second, when the ball hit Midoriya’s arms, he saw him push back enough to keep the ball from flying off before tumbling backward.

His eyes went wide as he fell to the ground before they turned back to the same pissed off glare, and his face scowled. 

Damn it, he thought. He actually improved…

Iida hadn’t been paying attention, as he was going on a speech about how it was important to respect your seniors…

“If you don’t understand who’s in charge now, it will certainly come back to bite you in the future! Respect in high school clubs, especially sports, will help you connect with your teammates, and learn new techniques, as well as, (yada, yada, yada)!”

So he never noticed the ball Midoriya failed to receive was making a beeline straight for his…

“SMACK!”

Face.

The ball pummeled the left side of Iida’s face in a powerful blow, so much his glasses flew off his face. He stumbled back a bit as the ball hit the ground and dribbled away, as all three third years watched in horror.

Togata ran over immediately, “I-Iida-san! Your face!! Is it ok?!”

Iida held up a hand in front of him as Togata approached, “Do not worry! I’m fine, I just happened to be hurt a bit in the face! No pressure at all!” Even though he was holding his cheek with his other hand.

Togata went to his other side and pried his hand away to look at it, “Seriously, this should’ve left a bruise, you got to be firm to tank a hit like this.” 

“Thank you, Captain!”

Hadou walked over and bent down to see glasses on the ground next to him, “Though these glasses weren’t as lucky. Poor things…” She held them up to her face sadly. Iida's face lit up.

“Oh, it’s ok Hadou-senpai, I always make sure to have my…” He dug his other hand into his pocket for a solid minute before pulling out,

“Spare emergency glasses!” He held them up like a prize to be won at a county fair. It sure did have an effect on Hadou.

“Oooh! Shiny! And how resourceful!” She looked at him pleased. 

“How resourceful, sure more resourceful than me. More resourceful than I could ever be…” Amajiki turned around to stare at the floor in spite.

“Amajiki-kun!” Hadou looked over, concerned for him again.

Both Midoriya and Bakugo looked on in absolute fear of what they had done, and before either one of them could say or do anything, Togata gave them the glare.

The glare of a pissed off captain.

“You two, we need have to have a talk outside,” he grabbed Midoriya first and quickly grabbed Bakugo before he could run away, “RIGHT NOW!”

And so Togata had thrown the two outside where the back door was located. Midoriya was shaking out of his mind nervous, while Bakugo just looked pissed off, as usual, then he looked at Midoriya. 

“Why the hell didn’t you receive it dumbass? Then none of this would’ve happened.”

“W-what do you mean? Why did you serve even harder than the first time?! You’ve should’ve known that was going to happen!”

“Talking all this shit, like you somehow improved as much as I did in that amount of time. CAN IT! You still stink!”

“Why do you have to make fun of me for no reason, I tried my hardest on the receive and I-!”

“I would like you both to listen.”

Midoriya and Bakugo looked over to see Togata’s intimidating stare and hear his chilling tone. They both shut up immediately.

“I don’t know what motivated you both, but you both came here to Yuuei to win didn’t you?” His voice held both melancholy and sincerity.

“Yes!”

“Fucking course.”

Togata shook his head sighed for a moment, and then looked up to the huge sky above them, like he was remembering harsh memories.

“Back then, Yuuei’s team was not only one of the best in the prefecture but one of the best in the country. With the coaching talents of both Torino and Yagi-sensei, they were able to go to nationals multiple times. I should know, It was something I was told often as a first-year still in training. Even if we eliminated second, or even third round, we always improved and always performed well.

But the year, Amajiki, Hadou, and I joined was Torino-sensei’s last year of coaching. We still made it to nationals that year, but we were eliminated swiftly in the first round.”

Togata now looked at the floor below, “Now, we’re only in the top ten in the prefecture. We aren’t super weak, but we aren’t super strong either.”

Then he looked straight at the both of them, “But, things are different now. With all the new talented new players that have arrived, I intend to turn you boys into a nationals ready team! My dream…” He closed his eyes, before shouting the same way he did earlier while greeting them.

“Is to go to nationals one more time, before I graduate as a third-year! WE WILL GO THERE, ONE MORE TIME!”

Both boys were taken aback by his current statement, the pure amount of confidence in Togata’s voice was inspiring to Midoriya.

“I don’t know much about you two, but I do know you went to the same junior high. If you two are rivals, I respect that, since rivalries push us as players to become stronger together. However, I want you both to understand you’re on the same team now, and no matter how good you are or how much you intend to work on your craft…”

He shouted at them again, “Anyone who’s dragging the team down with a petty rivalry, ISN’T GOOD ENOUGH TO BE APART OF IT!”

The two nodded, Bakugo annoyed at how strong Yuuei’s captain sounded. For a stupid lower ranked school, he thought, they sure have someone pretty fucking tough in charge.

He then turned around, and put a hand on his chin in a thinking pose, “Now, what should I have you do for interrupting me and hurting Iida-kun.” He mumbled a bit before coming to a conclusion, his face lighting up once again.

He held up a finger and put a smile on his own smile on his face, “I got it! Until you two can get along better as players, you will be doing separate, one on one practice!” 

Bakugo and Midoriya were perplexed, as they both contemplated what he said for a moment. Bakugo was the first to react, “WHAT?! ONE ON FUCKING WHO, WHAT NOW?!”

“It would be impossible for you both to participate at practice if you can’t get along, so this way you will be improving and becoming better teammates!”

Midoriya realized what this meant and immediately tried to find a way out of personal one on one bully sessions with Bakugo, “B-but, Togata-senpai, me and Bakugo can just not talk to each other during practice or something, we don’t have to both be together all the time!”

“If you don’t learn how to communicate now, how do you fare you will communicate during games?” Midoriya cringed as he looked to the ground in defeat, realizing that Togata was absolutely right and he had no other reason to argue back.

Except for the fact that Bakugo seemed to despise him for just existing, and would torture him during practice, but he couldn’t tell his captain that…

“Also, not will not only be one on one practice, but you will doing it outside the gym, to not disturb the other players joining the club today! Let me grab you to a ball…”

“Wait, the hell do you think you’re doing?! You think you can just stick me with this fucking loser and we’ll just practice volleyball like it’s nothin-?!”

Bakugo was cut off after Togata poked his body inside the gym door asking Iida for a ball, and then came out tossing a ball to him, “Here!”

Bakugo caught the ball and Togata waved off to the both of them, “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to do check-ins to make sure the two of you are getting along!”

“Wait!” But it was too late, as by the time Midoriya said that Togata was already back in the gym with the door closed.

The two stared at the door for a long time, before Bakugo tossed up the ball and spiked it at the door, “Arrgh, DUMBASS!! Let’s us back IN!!!”

“Stop it Kacchan, that’s not going to get us anywhere, not now anyway.” Midoriya went over to where the ball dribbled off to and picked it back up.

“Then what do you think we should do then, damn nerd?!” Midoriya looked at him for a second and then looked back at the ball. 

“We’ve got nothing better else to do besides go home, so we might as well practice while we can.” Midoriya began to walk off back to the entrance of the gym.

Bakugo was fuming, but since he knew Midoriya was right, he grumbled, “Stuck with the damn nerd, at least let me practice by myself…”

“I can still hear you Kacchan.”

“SHUT UP! IDIOT DEKU!”

____________________________________________________________________________

The two practiced in front of the gym entrance for a while, working on receives/passing while Bakugo quietly raged the whole time, until Midoriya asked him to switch to serve to receive practice, just so he could get rid of Bakugo’s scary face while practicing.

Now instead of the miffed face he had before, he smiled like a madman while he served into Midoriya’s arms with a passion.

“Still can’t take it after the 5th time? Thought you wanted to be a libero!”

“It’s hard to receive when all of your serves feel like I’m getting hit by an active grenade,” Midoriya complained while breathing heavy, he slouched over putting his hands on his knees. He took a deep breath.

“Hahaha! Just like how I want them to feel!” His grin grew even wider as he laughed like a maniac.

“Do you even hear yourself talk?!” Midoriya replied, scared for his life as he heard more of Bakugo’s laugh.

“Now,” He jumped in the air after a quick toss of the ball, and then slammed it down straight to Midoriya, “Tell me, how this one feels!!”

Midoriya tensed up, clearly not ready for the serve, and fell backward as he attempted to receive the ball.

Though, right before Bakugo could say something rude to Midoriya’s face…

“Nice serve.”

The two looked to the side of them and saw a kid with half red and half white hair, and a burn mark on the side of his face covering one of his eyes.

They both recognized him instantly.

“You’re…” Bakugo looked at him disturbed.

“The setter from the tournament last year! U-um, um, what was his name again…”

Midoriya, still on the ground, snapped his fingers, “T-T-Todoroki?! Does that mean you went to Somei Academy too?” Todoroki nodded.

The boy named Todoroki spoke calmly and slowly, as if he was thinking about each word he said, “I’m surprised you remember my name. It’s been a long time since you’ve come to face me.”

“N-no, it’s fine, I usually, kinda remember all the small details about things! It’s like a weird habit of mine,” Midoriya started waving his hands in front of his face, while Bakugo looked away with second-hand embarrassment.

“I’m more surprised you remembered us to be honest, heh.”

“Of course I would. Both of you were exceptionally strong players. With you being a pretty good libero for your age,” Todoroki turned, then pointing to Bakugo, “and you being a good spiker, despite being so loud and angry.”

“HEY!” Bakugo then proved Todoroki’s pointed by shouting at him, “Don’t think I’ll just let you talk any way you want to me just because you beat me! I’ll still wipe the floor with you!”

“I would feel that wouldn’t be for the best. We are now on the same team after all, and I do intend to be the setter. If you are the wing spiker, it would mean I will need to set to you in the future.”

Bakugo stared at Todoroki and Todoroki stared back. They were both staring at each other so intensely, it made Midoriya uncomfortable. Finally, though, Todoroki broke the silence with a realization.

“Oh. Speaking of teams, why are you two practicing outside? Why aren’t you inside with everyone else?

Bakugo winced, before coming up with a quick excuse to make Todoroki think more highly of them, he couldn’t tell someone like him they were kicked out of the gym.

“Well, we decided to work out here on our own! ‘Cause, it as too damn loud in the gym for us to-!”

“We were kicked out for causing a ruckus,” Midoriya stated calmly, while he felt the presence of death itself, as he slowly turned to look at Bakugo’s face. “Aaah!”

Todoroki shrugged and walked past them towards the gym’s front entrance, and sliding the door open. Coincidencedentally, Iida was behind the door holding equipment.

“Ah, Todoroki-san! You made it on time!” Todoroki nodded, “Don’t worry about the two behind you, they’re receiving punishment from the captain.” Iida went on.

“Huh?! Hey, come outside and challenge us before you say shit dumbass!” Bakugo screamed as Todoroki came in and Iida closed the door. Silence, again for the two players.

Midoriya got off the ground and walked over to the window to look inside the gym. He hopped onto the wall, holding the frames as he peered through to see players practicing. He heard small noises of callouts and compliments.

“They look like they’re already practicing as a team, *sigh*, I hate watching from the outside like this.” His face fell, defeated.

“DAMN IT! I’m tired of staying out here, check up on us my ass! We gotta find a way to get back in there!”

“I-I mean, I don’t know if we’re friendly enough with each other yet to come back in…” Midoriya mumbled off to himself.

“I’m a fucking force to be reckoned with! That should be enough to let be practice with the team!!” Midoriya looked on, a bit accepting of the fact Bakugo would think this is a reason enough to be let back in.

Midoriya hopped off the wall, “So, what are you going to do then?”

“Challenge them to practice match!”

“W-wait! This isn’t some shonen manga! That might not work!”

“Dumbass! I wasn’t thinking like that!” Bakugo rested his hand on the back of his neck, “We already played together in middle school if we can show them that we can do teamwork, they’ll definitely let us back in!”

It wasn’t an awful plan, but it’s not like their teamwork had largely improved since then, if anything, Midoriya would have to put more work in so Togata would think they were former teammates by some degree.

"I-I, I guess it could work…”

“It’ll only work if you get better, we may be challenging upperclassmen, so if you can’t receive my serves, we’ll never be able to win!”

Bakugo went back to standing straight across from Midoriya, “If you want to keep playing volleyball at this shitty high school, then don’t drag me down!”

Midoriya felt the wind breeze through his hair, and his eyes naturally went to the ball he failed to receive earlier. He went to go pick it up, and looked back at Bakugo with a serious gaze, “If it means I can play volleyball, on a good team, on a position I like…”

He said the last part mostly for himself, “I can endure it. For as long as possible!”

“Hey! Stop wasting time and pass me the ball already!” Midoriya was startled out of his concentration,

“Y-yes, sorry Kacchan…”

And so Midoriya passed the ball to Bakugo and the two kept practicing as Togata checked on them a few times. Bakugo kept spiking the ball as hard as he could, and even Midoriya would fall, he would always get back up.

____________________________________________________________________________

It was getting dark, and the two were still going back and forth with spikes, receives, and serves. Midoriya probably had nothing left in the tank, and it showed. Bakugo looked as if he could go another hour and maybe more.

Sweat dripping off his face, Midoriya gasped for air, as he asked, “Bakugo, one, more, please…” 

Bakugo smiled, not even taking letting a moment pass for Midoriya to get ready, as he jumped and spiked the ball towards him. Midoriya, though, was getting better at reacting to this fast spike of his. He stepped over to do a simple underhand receive, even though Bakugo would yell at him for chickening out of putting in the effort, but he was getting tired and the spikes were still crazy powerful.

Just as he got to the ball though, a hand appeared above his face to catch it, just in the nick of time. 

“He-hey…” Midoriya looked behind to see what caught it, another blonde boy and a boy with purple hair, the latter’s eyes looking too tired to be standing there in the first place.

“It seems a though they are still practicing, even if it gets cold and dark. Such motivation…”

The blonde boy said in a sarcastic tone. 

He took the ball away towards Midoriya’s face and towards his, “So, I assume you two were the brats that made trouble on the first day for the team?”

“Hey, Monoma-san, don’t try so hard to piss off our new teammates.” The purple-haired guy requested.

“H-wha…?! Who the hell are you people and why are you interrupting our practice?!”

Monoma looked over to Bakugo mockingly and then smiled quite earnestly, even if it still felt like a jab undercover.

“My apologies, we have seemed to have forgotten common manners, we shall introduce ourselves. My name is Neito Monoma. We’re first years from the volleyball club, like you.”

“And my name is Hitoshi Tendo. I’d like it if you called me Hitoshi though. It’s nice to meet you both.”

Midoriya fully turned around to see them both and stared in awe at Hitoshi.

“Hitoshi… Tendo!? Tendo as in Satori Tendo?! From Shiratorizawa?!”

Hitoshi looked surprised as well, his eyes widened as he replied to the seeming star-struck boy, “Y-yes, I’m his younger brother.”

Bakugo walked over closer to Midoriya, “What are you getting so damn excited about?”

Midoriya turned to him and started gushing, “You don’t understand! Tendo Satori is a super good middle blocker, and people call him the Guess Monster in the Miyagi prefecture, cause of his amazing read blocking! And, he goes to the same school as the legendary Wakatoshi Ushijima!”

Bakugo’s eyebrows shot up and he looked at Tendo as well, “Ushijima?! I knew Shiratorizawa was a top school, but Ushijima is one of the best aces in the country. Your brother must be good to even grace his presence.”

Hitoshi blushed and he looked quite happy for someone so bleak before, as he looked away from their stares, “H-he is, t-thank you for your kind words.”

Monoma also looked at Hitoshi, and despite not wanting to ruin this moment for him, he needed to establish things quickly while he was in a position to. He smirked and looked over at Bakugo once more.

“Don’t forget, Hitoshi-kun is cut from the same cloth as his brother, meaning he’s just getting up to, if not already at, his level already.”

Hitoshi shook his head and mumbled to himself, a bit peeved at Monoma's comment “Don’t compare me to nii-chan…”

“And speaking of good players, Katsuki Bakugo. The rising star of the Shizuoka Prefecture. I’ve heard of you before, supposed to be an up and coming spiker. What are you doing here at Yuuei, of all places?”

“Huh? How is that supposed to be any of your damn business? I don’t remember being told to tell you everything you need to know about me.” He walked up to Monoma’s face, practically growling.

Monoma’s sadistic smile grew, “Hey, hey calm down. If I’m going to set to someone in my matches, I’d prefer they’d be a little more, I don’t know, submissive. Getting mad so easily will drag down winning potential.”

“So he’s a setter…” Midoriya murmured in the background. Bakugo’s face grew confused.

“Why would I want a loser like you to be my setter, even if it’s annoying, If I had to choose I’d rather have Half and Half set for me! He probably went to a better school than you ever went to, with better fucking players!” He’s already given him a nickname, Midoriya sighed, as Hitoshi racked his brain, trying to figure out who Half and Half was.

Monoma became stunned, and then his face had a bit of anger flood into it. “S-s-shoto, huh… You Class 1-A dolts do tend to stick with each other, quite stupidly I might add!” 

Shoto, Todoroki? That’s probably his full name, Midoriya pondered, Class 1-A… What a minute, Todoroki-san is in our class?! I didn’t even notice!

“Whatever, even if you're all are damn elites, people like me and Hitoshi are good players bred by skill and hard work. We’ll be competing for the starting roster just as hard as you pompous fouls!” 

“Pompous? Why don’t you grow some fucking balls and stop talking like an old man!!” 

“Tch.” He threw the ball back at Bakugo, “Loud and crass, just as they described, I don’t know why’d anyone play with you, to begin with, let alone now.”

Bakugo was beginning launch full throttle, (which in Midoriya's book, meant really angry!), as he charged for Mononma, grabbing his collar and lifting him up menacingly, “Try calling me loud again, jackass!”

Monoma was still smirking the whole time, until “KACCHAN!”

Bakugo looked back at Midoriya, and Midotiya shook his head, worried. “We don’t want to get into more trouble than we already are!” 

Bakugo looked back at Monoma’s smug face and sneered, dropping him as Monoma confidently fell on his two feet. He straightened out his collar.

“You seem to have a short fuse. Well, we’ll see if that will help you gain a spot on the team and not on the sidelines looking in.”

“Hey!” Monoma, puzzled, noticed Midoriya still standing near him, “We’re both good players, so we won’t have any trouble getting onto the team!” Midoriya stared at Monoma fiercely.

Monoma laughed, in a sinister, maniacal way, as if he was a villain in a morning superhero show, “So, you’re the libero we’re supposed to rely on. Make sure not to fall flat on your face tomorrow trying to receive that kid’s crazy spikes!” Midoriya faltered a bit but still held his confident gaze.

“We should go, irritating them any further could land us in trouble as well.” Hitoshi calmly addressed the situation to Monoma.

“Sure, don’t want to bother the two problem children.” Monoma began to walk off, but Hitoshi stayed behind a bit.

“It was nice to meet you, Midoriya… Wait, do you have a first name?”

“Izuku.” Midoriya quietly stated, Hitoshi nodded and this time bowed again with more finality.

“Izuku Midoriya, it was a pleasure meeting you. Katsuki Bakugo, thank you for the kind words. See you tomorrow.” Hitoshi jogged a bit to catch up with Monoma, who was staring back at them with a scowl on his face. Bakugo scowled back at him.

“Wait! What classes are you from?!” Midoriya shouted as they walked away. 

Monoma and Hitoshi both turned around, “Class 1-B.” Monoma said bitterly. It was, in contrast, to Hitoshi’s calmer,

“Class 1-C.”

As they both went out of their field of vision, Midoriya looked down at the ground, a bit taken aback. If people like Monoma were on the team, would it still be a good one? Did he still have a chance to do anything impactful or helpful?

Or will he indeed fall flat on his face, as Monoma described? It had a high probability of happening, the more he thought about it...

“Oi!” Midoriya turned, to see Bakugo, grinning wildly in the direction of the two boys they had just talked to, walking away.

He held his hand up open like it was causing a mini-explosion. “Don’t worry dumbass Deku, tomorrow morning…

Is where we declare our opening of war.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter, Bakugo, and Midoriya challenge with all their might! And they may have gotten what they wanted? Can they prepare in time?


	4. Challenges With New Allies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Midoriya and Bakugo propose a challenge to Togata and Amajiki. However, it appears they won't be the two upperclassmen won't be the opponents for the proposed challenge they give...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHEW! IM ON BREAK! YESSIR!
> 
> I will try to get my hw done this weekend and then, two weeks of freedom and MORE TIME TO WRITE BABY! YES!

It was six forty-five AM, early in the morning as the three third-years entered the gym for morning practice. Hadou yawned, her hair curled around her neck and torso like a massive scarf, “The first, *yawn*, morning practice of the year is so, *yawn*, demanding…”

“Being here before everyone allows us to warm up and show true spirit to the other members! We can’t have them show up and see us all messy and unprepared!” Togata waved his hand vertically in front of his face.

“If they saw us like that, they would probably drop the club on the spot. I mean, that would be for the best at the end of the day.” 

Fully ignoring Amajiki’s comment, Togata looked behind him past the two third-years, “Anyways, I’m still surprised the two of you came so early, Todoroki-kun and Iida-kun.” 

The aforementioned two walked into the gym last of the bunch, as Iida readjusted his glasses as he spoke passionately, “Of course! I need to practice as soon as possible to keep my skill in check, and it never hurts to have more time to prepare!”

“It just makes sense to come here earlier, fewer people to bother me while I set.” Todoroki wasn’t particularly looking at anything as he replied to Togata’s statement.

“Well, for any reason so it be, I’m just so glad that you two show so much ambition!” Togata then pumped his fists into the air.

“Alright, let's do this! Time to warm up and get our blood flowing!”

And with that, Hadou began to get water bottles and the nets ready as Togata and Amajiki grabbed some balls. Just as the current team members were done changing into more comfortable workout clothes, Amajiki lamented.

“Hey, Mirio, do you think you were too hard on those first-years from yesterday? They might’ve quit the club already, you know.” Amajiki stared at him, his face full of distress.

“Stop going on about people quitting the club, it’s a bad omen!” Togata reacted. He then sighed and smiled again as began to stretch.

“But to answer your question, no, I don’t think what I did was bad. I feel as though those two have a real passion for volleyball, so no matter what, even when I checked up on them,”

He got back up after touching his toes and turned his head around to face Amajiki, “They were still practicing together. Because they didn’t feel like quitting yet.” He beamed more devotedly than ever before.

Amajiki put his shirt on fully and glanced at the net beside them, “Then maybe you're right, it’s fine. Though, you have to admit, they might get tired of being forced to stay outside the gym for a long time. They could revolt against us, or challenge us to practice game with high stakes, or sneak in when we’re not looking…”

Togata laughed at Amajiki’s absurd ideas, “Well if they’re going to challenge us to a game, I’d be impressed that they have the balls to challenge their upperclassmen!”

Then, suddenly, a pair of screams erupted from behind the entrance door, interrupting the boys’ conversation.

“CAPTAIN!” 

Both Amajiki and Togata looked at where the scream came from. And as soon as Amajiki went over and slowly opened the door,

“WE WOULD LIKE TO CHALLENGE YOU TWO, THE UPPERCLASSMEN!”

“AAH!” Amajiki jumped back in shock, while Togata simply started to laugh. It was both Midoriya and Bakugo, in jackets to protect from the morning cold, standing side by side with determined faces. 

“WE CAN PROVE, THAT WE CAN PLAY TOGETHER!” Midoriya and Bakugo both shouted at the top of their lungs, and Togata couldn’t stop laughing. He wiped a tear from his eye.

“Looks like you were right Tamaki-kun! Dang, you guys even said it in sync!” His laugh changed to a chuckle as he turned from looking at Amajiki to the two boys.

“Well, I’m surprised, both at that and at the fact that you do want to challenge us! But, are you sure you’re ready after only one day of practice?”

“DAMN RIGHT WE’RE READY!” Bakugo screamed at him, while Midoriya, startled, told him to calm down.

“Well, I doubt it, but an important thing for a wing spiker to have is confidence! So I like the cut of your gib, Bakugo-kun! But, also,” Togata addressed Midoriya as well.

“A libero must have some as well if they are to be the backbone that protects the team! So, and tell me if you are, are you truly ready, Midoriya-kun?”

Midoriya stopped paying attention to Bakugo and stared at Togata’s face. It was full of enthusiasm and courage, the latter of those things he never once had. But, he thought to himself, if it won’t hurt, I have to, try. For this team…!

For the chance to play like I always wanted...

“YES! I AM READY!” Midoriya claimed, gazing straight on ahead at Togata with full conviction, Bakugo peeped at him and sneered in annoyance.

Who the hell said you get to talk like that on your own? Bakugo thought.

“Haha! That's it! Nice, Midoriya-kun! Now that’s how a libero should talk to his teammates! Now, if we’re going to have a practice match, I don’t think Amajiki and I can be your opponents. I still don’t think you guys are ready yet…” Bakugo was immediately hostile.

“Huh?! Oi, what’s the deal-!”

“Calm down, Bakugo-kun. While you two are first-years with plenty of excitement and ability, Tamaki and I have something special that you don’t have as much of,” He stopped talking and pointed directly at the two boys, “experience.” 

Bakugo, crushed, calmed down after hearing Togata's words. Though to Midoriya, he looked more pissed off than ever at the revelation that he wouldn’t have the well-trained third-years as opponents. 

“There are still plenty of good potential combatants though, just got to think a bit! Alright, let’s see here…”

“Togata-senpai.” Togata turned around, startled, only to see it was Todoroki and Iida walking over, already in their practice attire.

“Ah! Todoroki! Iida-kun! Perfect timing!” 

Midoriya piped up, excited to see them again, “Iida-san and Todoroki-san!”

“Midoriya-san! It is nice to see you! You as well, Bakugo.” Iida held up his hand as he greeted them.

Todoroki simply nodded in their general direction.

“This is great! We can have you two help us with the practice match!” Togata struck his leaderly pose again, before motioning Bakugo and Midoriya to come into the gym.

“A practice match? Would you like for us to be opponents?” Todoroki glanced at his captain, slightly confused.

“Nope! Well, kinda. Not exactly, you see, you can choose! You can be either opponents or allies in these boy’s plight for acceptance within the team!” He pointed again at Midoriya and a less than pleased Bakugo. 

“Why the hell would we have to work with these extras, they’re the same kids that beat us before! If anything, we can truly have a rematch and kick their asses this time around!” 

“That’s the thing Bakugo, they can choose! I’m not saying they’re your teammates, it’s whatever they choose.” Iida, in the background, counted the number of people on his fingers.

“Well, even with all of us together,” Amajiki closed the door behind them as Iida conversed, shaking out his jitters from the scare earlier, “we wouldn’t have enough for a three on three, captain.”

“Ah, you’re right Iida-kun. But, we can fix this! There are plenty of good players that showed up yesterday that can volunteer! Now, all we have to do is find who to ask…?”

Togata turned around, now speaking way quieter, “I mean, he could, but we need a good spread of positions between all the players… Oh! I know someone we could ask. For one, R-”

Togata was interrupted from his mumblings and then excited announcing by some knocks on the door. Everyone’s heads turned towards it, and Amajiki sorrowed. He walked over to it again, still shaken up from last time, but Hadou stopped him by grabbing his shoulder.

“We don’t need your kitten-heart exploding again Amajiki-kun! Don’t worry, I can handle it!” She looked worried at first, but then returned to her happy go lucky attitude as she left him behind to open the door.

“First a chicken, now a kitten. When is she going to make up her mind…” Amajiki uttered as he walked away in embarrassment.

Hadou neared the door and finally opened it, chiming to whoever outside with a, “Hello, hello?” 

She looked outside with an inquisitive look on her face, only to see Monoma and Hitoshi standing outside, also in winter jackets. Monoma talked with a smile plastered on his face.

“Finally, time for morning practice! If we arrived at a good time, I won’t have to see Shoto’s face so early in the day!” Hitoshi glanced at him from the side with a critical look.

“If you want to perform well on this team Neito-kun, you have to get along with your teammates. You should seriously consider team chemistry, especially after that fiasco yesterday.” Hitoshi scrutinized Monoma, but in the end, Monoma just groaned and closed his eyes, waving his hand back and forward as if the matter wasn’t important to him. Hadou slid the door open farther and let them in.

“Togata! Monoma and Tendo-san are here!”

“Fine, fine, I get it, I’ll work with them. I just want a nice, peaceful, quiet morning with no stupid setter, or annoying wing spiker from that rotten, putrid, shameful Class 1-A this ear-,”

Monoma cut himself off as he entered the gym with Hitoshi when he saw something that truly ticked him off. The two kid’s he hated the most at the moment, Todoroki and Bakugo, were standing right in front of him. Bakugo growled at him, while Todoroki’s eyebrows fell like he was slightly disappointed.

“ly. Damn, it...” Monoma snarled back at Bakugo as Hitoshi looked over at Hadou.

“Hadou-senpai, I asked if you could call me Hitoshi yesterday, if that’s fine for you.”

“Oh, oops! Sorry, Hito, Hitoshiiii… Hitoshi-san! Got it, sorry! I’ll try to remember that for next time.” She clapped her hands together and grinned at him.

“Ahem, Nice to see you again, Monoma-san and Hitosh-!” Iida began his usual greetings before he interrupted by… 

“What the hell do you think you're doing here Shoto-san?! Here to flaunt your skills to the other members and captain’s more? Here to show off?! Look’s like elites like you have no falter in their resolve.” Monoma walked over to the others, glaring straight at Todoroki. He spoke fast at first, but everything after that came flowing like a vile poison, shooting out of a deadly snake's mouth.

“Hey! Monoma, that is no way to talk to a fellow teammate!” Iida tried to stop Monoma in his path, but Todoroki’s face didn’t even waver a smidge to Monoma's remark. Todoroki responded to him calmly.

“I’m here because I wanted to practice more, and so when Amajiki-senpai told me he and the other third-years get here earlier to set things up, I desired to capitalize on that and get some solo training in.” He answered honestly.

Monoma cringed at his answer, thinking, Of course, it makes sense that he would do something stupid like that. 

He then glared at Bakugo, asking, “And what the hell is the problem child doing here too? I hear you aren’t even allowed back in the gym yet.”

Monoma then smirked, in his usual wicked, wild way, putting his face even closer to Bakugo’s, “Did you finally crack and decide to quit the team? GOOD! FINALLY! We would be far better off with fewer of you Class 1-A idiots running around here anyway!”

Before Iida could even chastise Monoma properly, Bakugo screamed...

“Get, away from me, DUMBASS!!!” 

Monoma backed up a bit, with his smirk starting to flounder, “We came here to challenge the third-years to a match! If we win we get back in with the team. Though, we have to face these losers here instead of the upperclassmen.”

“Not necessarily…!” Togata shouted, but it felt more like a whimper out in the current conversation. Monoma still seemed unsatisfied, as Midotiya considered idly to himself, Did, Bakugo seem kinda, soft there? Did he hold back, on Monoma, of all people?! He just answered the question, without saying anything else to him!

And before Midoriya could even think about it some more...

“Hey." Bakugo muttered, "Also, a quick word of advice,” He walked close to Monoma’s face now, and before Monoma could even say or do anything, he yelped in sudden pain. Bakugo had stomped on one of his feet full stop, crushing into it while saying, “don’t ever, EVER, come near my face again, unless you have something of a personal death wish, fuckhead.”

Both Bakugo and Monoma stared at each other, with faces full of scorn and hatred, while Iida tried his best to intervene.

“You two, this is the absolute opposite of good team behavior! I must implore you both to stop before you embarrass yourselves any further in front of the captain-!”

“SHUT UP, MORON!” They both screamed, causing Iida to finally step back, but not to stop lecturing them in the slightest.

Meanwhile, during all the chaos, Hitoshi walked up next to lightly disappointed Midoriya, his earlier deduction dashed with the wind.

“Good morning, Midoriya-san.”

“Oh! Good morning, Tendo-san! Oh, w-w-wait, well, I mean, Hitoshi-san! Oh man, I’m so sorry about that, Hitoshi, I’m just so used to saying last names. I swear though, I will get used to it!” Hitoshi simply shook his head.

“It’s fine, does it, perhaps, make you uncomfortable in any way? You don't have to force yourself for my convenience.”

“N-n-n-no! Of course not! ...A-actually, a little, yeah. It just makes us seem like we’re close friends, even though we’ve talked to each other once before.” Midoriya rubbed the back of his head bashfully, giggling to himself a bit about how weird it all was.

“I mean, I’d like us to be. It would be a great help to the team if we were to be better friends. But, only for the sake of playing better as a team. As, I don’t know if you’d like hanging out with me outside of volleyball much anyways…”

Midoriya stared at him, surprised and wide-eyed. “H-H-Hitoshi-san…”

He then smiled, full of delight, “OK! Then let’s be good friends to each other from now, Hitoshi-kun!”

Hitoshi now was the one somewhat confused as he glanced at Midoriya perplexed, “When did I give you the right to call me that?”

Togata watched the interactions take fold between the first years, and once again, his whole face lit up like a light bulb, another awesome idea had just surfaced! He clapped his hands together eagerly.

“Hitoshi! Monoma-kun! Would you guy like to help us out with the practice match Bakugo-kun was talking about?”

“Huh?!” Both Hitoshi and Monoma replied, but Monoma’s reply felt a bit more pained, as the pressure had increased on his foot.

“Iida-kun is right! We need more players for a three and three game, and since you two just showed up, you two are the first I can ask!” Togata announced this while walking over and grabbing Bakugo up by the jacket collar and lifting him up of Monoma’s foot. Bakugo shouted and struggled the whole time until he was dropped down, then he just grumbled quietly to himself.

Monoma looked over at Todoroki, then at Bakugo, and then finally at Midoriya. Midoriya jumped, and Monoma smiled.

“Interesting. You did say you were playing for your chance to be on the team right? So if we beat you, no matter how it goes, 2 Class 1-A students drop out of the team!” He smiled, then struck a grandiose pose, feeling all smug and superior.

“This, this is perfect! Hitoshi-kun! Not only can we show our supremacy as players, but we can shoot down Class 1-A in the process?! We are to be Midoriya and Bakugo’s opponents in that practice match! Effective immediately!” Monoma pointed at Hitoshi dramatically.

Hitoshi sighed, “If you’re acting so gung-ho about it, I guess I will join you and, ‘oppose them’, as well.”

Monoma began to laugh maniacally, all the while Amajiki and Hadou stared at him, not quite understanding why he did this at all. Midoriya then glanced worriedly at Hitoshi. 

“W-wait, Hitoshi-kun! But Togata-senpai said you could choose for yourself…!” Hitoshi began to walk over to Monoma’s side, before turning back and looking at Midoriya.

“Yes, but... I meant what I said earlier about wanting to be friends. But, that is for the sake of this team, and to also help the sake of the team, I need to become the best volleyball player I can be. That means, surpassing you all,” He glared at him for a second and Midoriya jumped in his boots again. Geez, he thought, he looks so s-s-scary…

“And challenging you and Bakugo-san will help me achieve that.” He concluded coldly.

He then walked over to Monoma, and Togata clapped his hands together cheerfully again, “Nice! Now we have a match on our hands! Oh, and just to make clarify, Monoma…”

Monoma looked over at Togata, “Them leaving the team was never going to be the punishment for losing!” he stated, and Monoma’s jaw almost hit the floor in disgust, while Hadou snickered at his expression, “If I was going to choose a punishment for losing though, it would have to be something… Hm, what would it be? What about, one on one practice… FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR!” Midoriya and Bakugo's eyes nearly popped.

“FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR?!” Both cried in unison.

“What? It seems pretty fair, I mean, you wanted to challenge us to a match so early on after all. I was going to let you back in a few days, but if you’re this zealous, I might as well humor you two!”

He said it so enthusiastically, smiling as if the punishment was the best thing in the world. The two looked on in horror, but, if anything, they had to have strong hearts. They were the ones who had challenged in the first place, if they backed out now, it would only show how weak they were. Bakugo glared back at Togata,

“We’re not afraid of your weak-ass punishment. BRING IT ON! We’ll practice all day if we have to, just to BEAT YOUR ASS!!”

"Bakugo! Such obscene language, at your own captain no less!" Iida reprimanded. Bakugo frowned at him too,

"BUZZ OFF SOY BOY!"

Midoriya looked down at the ground, unsure of himself and his resolve. Was it really worth it risking it all right now? Going so big? They could've waited, heck, he was fine with waiting and doing more practice. He'd do it all if it meant he was part of the team. 

But then, remembered what Togata said earlier.

Confidence...

A libero must have... Confidence...

He took a deep breath and spoke.

“I, I didn’t come to this school not play on a team. I waited, so long, for something like this. Something functional, something that works. And something, that makes you want to keep playing volleyball.” Midoriya clutched the middle of his shirt with one hand, and Amajiki looked on in astonishment.

Dang, this kid has guts. Way more than I've ever had, he thought.

“So, if beating you is what it takes to get me to that," Midoriya resumed, "Then I, I, I WILL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES!” He shouted, with everyone in the gym gazing back at him in surprise.

Togata merely, just smiled, “Well then, if that's it, Midoriya-kun, I guess we have a deal. Win, and you’re let back on the team. Lose, and you’re stuck alone with each other for a whole year.”

Togata looked at Midoriya and Bakugo with the same fierce determination they looked at him. Then, he shut the stare off down to back at Iida and Todoroki.

“So Iida-kun and Todoroki-kun, have you decided what teams you want to be on yet?”

The two looked at each other, and Iida simply looked down at the ground for thought. Todoroki though, looked at Togata and said, 

“I want to play with Midoriya and Bakugo-san.”

Bakugo and Midoriya glimpsed at him, shocked. And before even Bakugo could voice a complaint,

“Oh? And why is that?” Togata asked first, genuinely curious. Todoroki looked like he was heavily thinking about his next choice of words.

“I, feel the raw determination that both Bakugo and Midoriya are putting forth into this match. So, I feel as a setter, I want to be able to support them and make sure their efforts aren’t wasted. That is my reason.”

“Eh? So you don’t think of us as damn losers?” Bakugod directed. Todoroki shook his head.

“Of course not. I do believe that both of you are good players in you’re own right. And despite you two losing that match long ago, you two still have skills that are beneficial to this team. I hope to see them in action when we play together.” Todoroki flat out stated.

“But no one said you could join our tea-!”

“Well, if Todoroki chooses you two, that means I must help Monoma and Hitoshi-san, no matter what their intentions are.”

Bakugo couldn't even try to stop anything, as Iida walked over to Monoma and Hitshoi and naturally bowed.

“LET US PLAY WELL TOGETHER!” Monoma still looked pissed off as all hell at the fact that he wasn't booting off 2 Class 1-A players as Iida shouted at them wholeheartedly. Monoma clicked his tongue in annoyance.

“Whatever, just don’t get anyway, Class 1-A scum.” Iida got back up and pushed up his glasses.

“Monoma, don’t think as we practice for this match that I won’t fix this attitude of yours.” He then pointed at Monoma dramatically himself, "I will not let you disrespect our captains or our senpais!"

“Eeeeehhh?!”

“It’s good to have you working with us, Iida-san.” Hitoshi finished  
.

“Keh, whatever, I wouldn’t want Shoto-san on my team anyway,” Monoma muttered.

“I guess that means Todoroki-san is with us Kacchan…” Midoriya looked over to Bakugo to see him quietly fuming.

“Aaah!”

“Hey, Half and Half! You better not slow us down, you fucking hear me!” As Bakugo yelled, Todoroki quietly nodded.

“I will try to get used to your spikes, Bakugo-san. Also, let’s do our best, Midoriya-san.” Midoriya nodded as well.

The six boys, now split into teams of 3 on 3, studied each other from a distance. You could cut the tension with a knife, as the mini rivalries had already begun to form and take shape at that very moment.

Amajiki looked over at Togata, “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Hadou looked curious as well. Togata though, just approved with his usual leader bravado as always.

“Oh, I’m sure. This time, more sure than I usually am!” Togata grinned, feeling as though this match will decide more than just if Midoriya and Bakugo get to play on the team. His elation was unmatched, well, until he realized, it was now seven. Heck, maybe past by this point, just a smidge. He looked up at the clock and then frantically at Midoriya and Bakugo.

“Shoot! It’s time for practice! MIdoriya, Bakugo, you two scram as we set up!”

Bakugo smiled as he began to jog towards the door, Midoriya lagging a bit behind. “TODOROKI! You better be ready to practice for this match, you damn hear me!”

“Ok.’ The red and white-haired boy replied as Bakugo slid the door open and he Midoriya raced toward the school’s entrance.

“Prepare to LOSE, CLASS 1-A CLOWNS!” Monoma roared as the two got increasingly farther away from the second gym.

“You hear that Deku, you better be ready to practice if we're to beat that shithead!” Bakugo declared as he gasped for breath, already running way faster than he needed to.

“Ok, ok, I get it!” Midoriya said exasperated. As the two ran, pretty much racing at this point, they flew past a boy with a headband and a boy with a ponytail. The pair they passed looked back at them.

“Huh, do you think… Those two are the boy’s the captain talked about yesterday?” The boy with the headband asked the boy next to him.

“Maybe, who knows though, they could be new applicants. That blonde-haired kid sounded annoying though.” The ponytail boy responded.

“Eh, agreed.” The headband boy shrugged his shoulders. And with that, the two continued onward towards the gym for practice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Don't forget to comment and make sure to have some great holidays!


End file.
